Nova Scotia’s plans to end its decades-long ban on uranium mining and exploration would allow the Canadian province to play a key role in the world’s clean energy supply chain, says Sean Kirby, executive director of the Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS).
Earlier this week, a government bill that includes a repeal of Nova Scotia’s uranium ban was cleared for third reading at the legislature — a major step towards the provincial government’s plan to unlock its vast wealth of the nuclear fuel.
Nova Scotia was once a hotbed of uranium exploration in the late 1970s, with tens of millions of dollars spent by major energy companies like Shell and Esso. However, due to public health concerns raised, the province declared a moratorium on uranium mining activities 1981. In 2009, the NDP government legislated a full ban on uranium.
However, MANS believes that modern uranium methods are much different than what they were some 40 years ago. Today, most uranium is mined using solution mining (aka in-situ leaching), which results in less disturbance at surface and produces basically no tailings or waste rock, the Association said.
“Modern uranium mining is a safe, environmentally responsible activity that is essential to achieving climate goals,” Kirby said in a press release this week. “There is no health, safety or environmental reason to ban uranium, and the ban harms our industry’s ability to create more jobs for Nova Scotians.”
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